Twitter silent on IDF's Gaza tweets

11/15/12 1:21 PM EST

The Israel Defense Force is continuing to live-tweet up-to-the-minute news, photos, and videos from its assault on Gaza, raising a host of ethical questions for Twitter, the social-networking service. But Twitter has so far decided to remain silent.

The terms of service for most social media sites and services almost universally ban prohibit violence. Which makes the Israeli Defense Force's livetweeting, YouTubing and Flickring of its assault on Gaza potentially problematic.

Twitter, for instance, bans "violence and threats": ("You may not publish or post direct, specific threats of violence against others.") This seems like a direct, specific threat of violence. YouTube's community guidelines warn, "Graphic or gratuitous violence is not allowed. If your video shows someone being physically hurt, attacked, or humiliated, don't post it." This video shows a man being killed. Facebook's terms say, "You will not post content that: is hate speech, threatening, or pornographic; incites violence; or contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence." (Bold mine.) But the IDF regular posts things like this poster celebrating the death of Ahmed Jabari, which could very well incite violence. ...

... Twitter has pointedly refused to make any kind of comment so far, but the IDF's most aggressive posts remain up, as well as those from the Alqassam Brigade, promising the "beginning of liberation war and ominous harbinger on sons of Zion." Facebook confirmed to Mike Isaac that it "will not be taking action on the current content posted."

Although it seems somewhat petty in the face of the renewed hostilities — or as Hamas put it in one classic tweet, the opening of the "gates of hell" — the question begs to be asked: is using Twitter for war propaganda a violation of the company's Terms of Service? And make no mistake, this is propaganda. Whatever you think of the IDF, it is spreading this information for political gain. At least when CNN is tweeting something, you can hope that it is fact-checked.

According to "The Twitter Rules," users "may not publish or post direct, specific threats of violence against others." When @IDFspokesperson recommends "that no Hamas operatives, whether low level or senior leaders, show their faces above ground in the days ahead," that certainly sounds like a threat — a cool, understated threat, but a threat nonetheless.

Twitter didn’t immediately responded to a request for comment.

This is the first time a military campaign has been live-tweeted by those waging it. How Twitter responds, if at all, will surely have implications for the future of real-time war coverage.